Glossary of Key Words to Understand 

Uses a sample of a tumor (biopsy) or blood to help your health care team to gather as much information as possible about your type of lung cancer, its causes, and potential treatment options. It may also be referred to as mutational, genomic, or molecular testing or genomic profiling.

Changes (mutations) in your cancer cells or specific proteins present on cancer cells that can be measured using a tumor (biopsy) or blood sample. The presence of biomarkers may affect your treatment options.

A sample of tissue or blood removed from the body to examine more closely.

A procedure in which a doctor puts a small, flexible camera into the airway to look for tumors. The bronchoscope may have tools to remove a small sample of tumor tissue (biopsy) for testing.

A disease in which some of the body’s cells grow uncontrollably and can spread to other parts of the body. It is caused by changes to DNA that control how cells grow and divide.

The basic building blocks that make up all the parts of the body. Each cell contains its own set of DNA. Cells grow and divide to copy themselves and make more cells.

A medication that travels through the bloodstream to kill cancer cells. Chemotherapy is a systemic treatment, meaning that it can affect cancer cells and healthy cells throughout the whole body.

Biomarker testing to look for multiple changes or mutations at the same time on the same tumor sample by next-generation sequencing.

Sophisticated x-rays that show the body in sections. These sections show the location and size of tumors.

Instructions inside cells that tell them how to grow and when to divide and make more cells.

Irregular DNA in cells that causes normal cells to become cancer cells and drives cancer growth.

A treatment that helps your body’s own immune system fight your cancer, typically given directly into your vein by injection at a medical office.

Detailed images of the body that are produced using magnetic fields. It is useful for finding abnormal growths, including tumors in the brain.

A change in a cell’s DNA.

A method of biomarker testing to look for multiple mutations in the DNA of a tumor sample all at the same time.

The most common form of lung cancer, which is described by the way the cancer cells look under a microscope (not small).

An immunotherapy biomarker on the surface of some of your cells that may help determine if immunotherapy is a treatment option for you.

A doctor who is an expert at diagnosing cancer by looking at cells under a microscope.

Images that can help determine where tumors are in the body. PET scans use a labeled sugar and a special camera. As part of this scan, a small amount of the labeled sugar is injected into a vein, and the PET machine is used to see where the sugar is used the most in the body. Since cancer cells grow faster than normal cells, they use more sugar and show up as bright spots in the PET scan images.

A treatment that targets the driver mutations that cause cancer growth.

A group of cells that work together in the body, usually as part of an organ like the lung, heart, or kidney.

Lumps of cells formed by cells growing and dividing abnormally. A tumor can be benign (not cancerous) or malignant (evidence of cancer).